What do you think is the communication barrier in an office environment?

Electronic mail may not be the ideal communication tool. It is just a fast convenient way to transmit your message across to another person when your recipient is outside your reach. There is no true communication in the aspect of expression, tonality and body language. There are still some messages not been sent across to recipients like your happiness and anger.

It is very easy to misunderstand what is said, even if emoticons (smiley) are used.

When you feel that a person is not telling the truth, check out the alignment between words, voice and body.

You need certain information that on your body to transmit the message across to the recipient. If the highly detailed information is not expressed thru actions, the messages might not be sent across correctly. A lot of communication actually comes through non-verbal communication.

Mehrabain Theory

In a typical mail message, you are not able to communicate your emotions. You can only use words to express your joys, frustrations. According to Mehrabain Theory,

* 7% happens in spoken words.
* 38% happens through voice tone.
* 55% happens via general body language.

The implication is that in all communications:

* It’s not just words: a lot of communication comes through non-verbal communication.
* Without seeing and hearing non-verbal, it is easier to misunderstand the message. In an email, how can you tell that a person is actually telling a joke versus writing a joke?
* When we are unsure about words and when we trust the other person less, we pay more attention to what we hear and see.

In my opinion, the ideal communication would be a face to face communication. With this, you are able to sense the other communication mode, such as visual, auditory portion from the sender. In a business environment, you can actually pick up the phone and communicate with the person directly. You are then able to grasp the message.

If the sender is angry, he will raise his voice with his hands on the hips. If sender is sad, he will lower his pitch and can see that his tears rolling down the cheek etc. This kind of non verbal communication is sometime critical in a message.

Developing good communications skills is important, so that we convey our messages clearly and prevent any misunderstanding. When we have communication breakdowns at work, we spend time and energy trying to make amends. It is hard for anyone to admit that their unclear communication caused the breakdown, and thus apologize. It’s wiser to make a conscious effort to prevent communication breakdowns instead.

One way to avoid conflicts at work is to communicate clearly and frequently with your colleagues on the following:

• What you are currently doing for the company

• What are some goals you are striving for at work, and even some of your personal ones that may affect work

• Some of the difficulties you are facing with customers, management, colleagues etc (without sounding like you are whining and complaining)

With the increased use of e-mails and text messages, we may forget the value of face-to-face interactions. When we communicate with a person face-to-face, we can build trust and open-ness with our verbal and non-verbal cues. We can also sense and understand the other person’s point of view and what they feel.

Use e-mails if you have specific requests or updates for a colleague, and the message can be read at their convenience. With e-mails, you can still sound cordial, instead of distance. Just a few more seconds of typing some niceties like “Have a great day!” can bring a feeling of goodwill to the reader.

At work today we tend to communicate more via e-mail and this has an impact on our interpersonal communication. For example, if you communicate your unhappiness or anger via email, pause a moment before you hit the ‘Send’ button! Cool down, review what you have written, and edit it so that it sounds more objective. Stick to the facts and avoid character attacks. Be objective and constructive. If you are criticizing something, offer a solution to improve the situation, if possible.

As you learn to communicate more effectively at work, you will be better able to achieve your goals, garner more support during setbacks, and feel much happier at work.

Communication is an art of conveying message to the other party. Imagine in the game of “Pass it on”. One has to convey the hidden message that he received to another party without uttering a word. Similarly, an email message can only convey the content over but not the emotions.

A face-to face communication is crucial. In some books, there are some eye assessing cues that tell us the eye can indicate the truth being said by the party.

In fact, 55% of the communication is actually done through visual communication. 38% is done through vocal communication. The remaining 7% will be through verbal communication. This clearly indicates that the body language – a combination of visual & verbal gives a very high percentage while communicating with one another.